Uzbek president plans to visit South Korea in September

Uzbek President Islam Karimov plans to visit Seoul, South Korea in September, an official statement on the outcome of Korean Minister of Strategy and Finance Jae-Wan Bahk's visit to Uzbekistan said today.

"The Korean leadership looks forward to the Uzbek President's forthcoming state visit which will allow the assessment of the results achieved in a full range of bilateral cooperation and determining specific areas and targets to further strengthen and expand the relations of the long term strategic partnership between our two countries," Korean minister said.

Jae-Wan Bahk said a visit will confirm the traditionally close economic and business ties between the two countries and give an additional powerful impetus for further growth of the financial and investment cooperation between the two steadily developing economies of Asia.

Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov spoke about the Uzbek president's planned visit to Korea for the first time during the sixth meeting of the forum for cooperation 'Republic of Korea - Central Asia' held in Seoul in July.

However, he has not specified the exact date of Karimov's visit to South Korea.
This will be the seventh visit of the Uzbek President to Korea. More than 10 summits have been held since 1992.

Mutual visits of the presidents to Uzbekistan in May 2009 and to South Korea in February 2010 confirmed the parties' commitment to the further development of strategic partnership, implementation of agreements and treaties reached at previous summits.

A meeting between Uzbek and Korean Presidents Islam Karimov and Lee Myung-bak in Tashkent in August 2011and the agreements on promising joint projects in various sectors of the economy signed during the Korean President's visit to Uzbekistan. have given a new impetus to bilateral cooperation.

At present, the total amount of claimed South Korean investments in Uzbekistan's economy exceeds $5 billion, including a mastered $2 billion. Bilateral trade volume totalled $1.6 billion in 2011. It increased by 47 per cent - up to $1.152 billion in the first half of this year. There are more than 400 companies with the South Korean capital in the fields of light, chemical, food industries, commerce, engineering, housing and utilities, healthcare, tourism and services in Uzbekistan.